Colorado state lawmakers to debate death penalty. AP
The debate over Colorado’s death penalty is at the forefront this week at the state Capitol, and the issue has Democratic lawmakers divided.
On Monday afternoon, Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, introduced a measure to have voters decide in 2014 whether to repeal the death penalty. Last Friday, two House Democrats, Reps. Claire Levy of Boulder, and Jovan Melton of Aurora, introduced a bill to allow lawmakers to repeal capital punishment. It will be heard Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
“The citizens should weigh-in on this,” said Fields. “I don’t personally believe this is up to lawmakers to decide.”
Her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were gunned down while driving in Aurora in 2005. The two were set to testify in a pending murder case. Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray are both on Colorado’s death row for their involvement in the murders.
The third man on death row is Nathan Dunlap, who killed multiple people in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese back in 1993. Dunlap is slated for execution later this year.
Neither Fields nor Levy’s measures would impact those already on death row, or someone charged with a crime before their proposals became law.
The last person the state of Colorado put to death was Gary Davis in 1997.
Colorado’s 18th Judicial District Attorney will decide next month if James Holmes, the man charged with killing 12 in an Aurora movie theater last July, will face the death penalty.
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